Slipping Velvet Drive & only 3000 rpm

Sunday afternoon my tach decided to work for a while. But it never went over 3000 rpm. How come my boat won't rev over 3000 rpm? Don't tell me the tach is reading wrong. It either reads correctly, or doesn't work at all. A new fuel filter is going in tomorrow.

If it's a linkage problem, where and how do I start making adjustments?

And is that at all related to my slipping transmission? After an hour of boating, skiing, and tubing, the tranny started slipping. Then I lost reverse. When I hit reverse, the motor revved, but the tranny stayed in forward. Lots of fun docking.

After the boat sat for an hour, reverse came back, but I still couldn't give the motor full power or the tranny would slip. This is a rebuilt tranny with fresh fluid. The housing got extremely hot, but the fluid cooling hoses were not equally hot. I changed the fluid tonight, and it smelled kinda burned. There was no water in the tranny, so the seals are still good.

This is a freshly rebuilt tranny. I'm hoping I haven't destroyed it already. Is the same thing that destroyed the first tranny taking this one out, too? If so, what would that be? I took the fluid hoses off and blew air through them, and then ran parts cleaner through them, then dried them out with air again. They didn't seem to be blocked, but I'm wondering if it's possible they were partially blocked?

The water cooling impellers seem to be doing their job. The impeller housing is staying a constant, relatively cool temperature.

Mind you, this tranny is only getting 3000 rpm, so I wonder what it will do when I get the motor all the way up to snuff?

Got to get this sorted out before family comes in Labor Day weekend.

Thomas

I've checked the fluid several times. I put in about a quart and a half, and it always shows up right on the dipstick.

I had a shop rebuild the tranny. It's not the first time out, but I don't have more than 5 hours on it. The fellow who rebuilt it has done plenty of trannies, but never a Velvet Drive. When he put the front clutch pack back together the way it came apart, it was too tight, and he figured that was why it melted down before. He got a shim from another tranny and put it back together the way he thought it should be. The was he put it back together seemed to fit with one of the diagrams I have in a book, but another diagram seemed to show a different way. I don't understand it enough to know exactly, but I think it should be right and I think the problem is more likely elsewhere.

Tested how? I put it in the boat and I'm running it. Is there some other way? I can't find anybody locally who knows anything about these boats, so the possibility of finding somebody locally who can test the tranny seems remote.

So how to check the linkage and see if it's right. Given that I can't get over 3000 rpm and that the same lever controls the throttle and the tranny, I wouldn't be surprised if it's mal-adjusted, but how to tell? The cable at the rear is hooked to the top hole on the lever on the transmission, which is the same hole it was on when I took it out.

Thomas